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I think so, obviously people will differ on which parts of the built environment or what art is worth making beautiful. But I thing the general trend in the west that people around these parts are hitting on is that this is a pretty generalized trend, we don’t think anything in our culture or civilization is worth the effort of beautification or even just taking seriously. I tend to agree with the Chinese criticism of western culture— that we are simply an unserious people. Nothing has worth or use or deserves to be taken seriously.
And thus to me is a huge problem because an unserious people cannot and will not do anything of note. Why would they, the environment screams at them that they live in a throw away society where everything is built cheaply as possible and made to break or be thrown away? Why contribute to culture when it’s cheap tawdry memes and spectacle and self parody all the way down? When the prize winning art looks like the artist puked paint on the canvas, and the best music is forgotten quickly, and so on, it says everything worth saying about us. A person who doesn’t believe they deserve good things would be considered possibly depressed, or at least to have issues with their self worth. I would submit that the general ugliness of our environment, our shitty art and so on say the same about us. We no longer believe that we deserve such nice things.
As a cohesive unit? That's fundamentally impossible. Do you think the Chinese youth take their leaders as seriously as those leaders take themselves? The next generation is always going to make jokes and generally trivialize what came before, that's their job.
There exist many people who can and do serious work, you're just not seeing it.
Do you like fiction? Ever want to read an entirely serious work about Rey and Kylo from the new Star Wars trilogy going from enemies to lovers? Go to AO3, you'll find your serious fiction. Do you like music? I'm sure there's some heartfelt song out put out by a black rapper about his struggles growing up on SoundCloud.
Yes, these things get memed. Yes, people do eventually grow tired of them. But just as many people hold these things near and dear to their hearts. They just don't get up in arms when someone makes a joke about it. Memes and self-parody don't stop serious things from existing, often within the same minds as well. The folks on the noncredibledefense subreddit made waifu art of Perun (a military analysis channel), but they'd be the first to tell you they take his words seriously.
"Where are my statues and buildings?" you ask. But those are your standards for what indicates a culture's self-esteem. The people you think are doing nothing are doing what they think is serious. Statues and buildings have a permanency and impact that are matched movies and TV shows. Which is more beautiful and serious, the original Star Wars trilogy or the Golden Gate Bridge? While I don't have the answer to that, the former was referenced in literal Chinese propaganda directed at their youth.
I’m thinking more of the cultural creatives and tastemakers and educational establishment. The people who design things — the architects and artists and writers obviously would bare the responsibility of having created ugly, cheap, art. The filmmakers are doing the same things with movies. They don’t care for the craft of filmmaking, there’s no thought to telling a coherent interesting story, it’s just spectacle and effects. And most of it is yet another franchise film that goes nowhere, but with plenty of room for the next 3-4 movies. Nobody’s going to look back on this generation’s films the way they look on the originals and Classic films of earlier eras.
But those largely are not art movies in the first place! They're not trying to be either! The MCU might be defended by fans as serious art, but it's a kid's spectacle to its core. You want serious movies that are trying to be art? Try movies like VVitch, Midsommar, or Tar.
I can hardly think of a more anti-elite attitude to movies if the ones that win box offices and several awards each year are flashy spectacles that the public at large seems fine eating up.
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